Forget the cat videos, the Sikhs are taking over the internet now

Who would have thought a young American Sikh boy would  shoot a video of him being racially abused? Harsukh Singh shot a video of himself being bullied by kids in a bus in Georgia, where they are seen calling him a “terrorist”. “Kids being racist to me and calling me an Afghan terrorist. Please don’t act like this towards people like me. If you don’t know, I’m not Muslim I’m Sikh,” the description below the video, which  now has over 1,30,000 views, read. But in another part of the world, a small  Sikh community is being credited for  the preservation of cheese in Cremona, Lombardy. A documentary titled Sikh Formaggio speaks about their contribution to the cheese industry at a time when most Italians were retiring from this blue collar job. “The production of cheese in our area would have many problems if it hadn’t been for the Sikhs. Our youth has problems working in farming,” says the Mayor of Cremona in the documentary. [caption id=“attachment_2133053” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Youtube grab from Sikh Formaggio[/caption] The job requires intense manual labour, and long working hours, which the Sikhs have no problem with. Infact, many generations have now settled in Cremona. “It was an occupation which was tradition and typical of North Italy. But with the local workforce dwindling, it was fortunate that the Indians came in and filled the labor gap,” adds the Mayor. The documentary talks about the regular life of a Sikh family in Italy, why they migrated and  their experiences. Last week, buzzfeed published a post on a new Sikh superhero called Super Sikh. The superhero in question is Deep Singh, a techie by day and also a highly skilled British Air service Agent. Published by supersikhcomics, their website asks, “Have you ever asked yourself why there are no Sikh superheroes? Isn’t it time to see a hero in a turban for a change?” They bring up relevant points. “We live in modern times, where Sikhs are often misunderstood, are the subject of stereotyping and hate crimes … so who do our kids look up to? Batman? Spiderman? Ironman? These are all characters imagined by mainstream American comic book writers, many of them created over 50 years ago.” [caption id=“attachment_2133057” align=“alignleft” width=“385”]  Deep Singh aka Super Sikh. Image by supersikhcomics[/caption] Deep Singh has modern sikh values, with internal power of intuition, training, physical and mental strength. He also listens to Elvis in his spare time. “We wanted a real world character, so that you might see a bit of yourself reflected in him,” the website reveals. In true superhero style, they even have a tagline:

“A hero is not defined by the way a person looks, but by a person’s actions.

So we realized that now is the time to show the world a modern hero in a turban.

It’s time for a Super Sikh!”